There were over 43,000 people in Arlington last night for the Rangers-Astros game. But apparently a big crowd doesn’t mean a rowdy crowd, and Ron Washington talked about it:

“You look at every other city that has a chance to be in the playoffs right now, there’s joy,” said Washington. “I don’t see a lot of joy in Arlington. I really don’t … I don’t think nobody, when we started losing people, thought that we would be here. We did. We spoiled people because we kept it together. When it looked like it was falling apart…I don’t have to tell y’all what you’ve seen,” said Washington.

Like I said yesterday in the Ludwick post, no one ever wins this “the fans aren’t loud enough” or “the fans aren’t good enough” things. Just a no-win situation. And for what it’s worth, after last year’s collapse and this year’s stagger to the finish line which could very well have the team out of the playoffs, it’d be understandable if Rangers fans are nervous.

I don’t care if Dallas is or is not a “baseball town”. Josh Hamilton said it and was absolutely roasted for it by the sports media. Please begin the evisceration of Ron Washington for the same comment.

It’s not. They just don’t cotton to not being the best at something (everything).

esracerx46 - Sep 26, 2013 at 12:42 PM

I have a few friends in Texas that are Rangers fans. They dislike Washington with a passion. Are they the only ones, or is this a common sentiment among Rangers fans. And 43,000 fans doesn’t sound like they aren’t a baseball town….maybe they aren’t a bunch of rowdy drunks like other fanbases and got to watch baseball. Not party.

Well tell your friends they don’t get paid to hate or love him, he only took us to our alcs and world series .. did you want hin to get out there and run the bases and you d9nt have to be drunk to party, party consist of doing somethin you love with alot of people, our fans have shut down the bandwagoners jumped off.. Washington is the only reason we have a chance n hell to do anything. He cant maje them score runs smh

It’s the other way around, genius. The Rangers took Wash to the World Series, not the other way around. He can’t make his players score runs, but he has decisions he can make that would give his players a better chance at scoring them. Wash very frequently decides wrong in those situations.

See the other night against the Astros for an example. Mitch Moreland singles off the lefty reliever to lead off the inning, which is rare enough in itself.

Craig Gentry is up next. His OPS against left-handers is .776(with an OBP of .378). He’s also extremely fast and unlikely to fall victim to a double play. This is a good situation to let Gentry take a normal at-bat and try to advance Moreland via base hit or walk. It’s also worth noting that Moreland is a slow runner and bunting him over to second is no sure thing. Wash has Gentry bunt anyway and throws away the first out of the inning moving Moreland over.

After that, Leonys Martin is up. His OPS against left-handers is a miserable .608. This is the guy Wash expected to drive in Moreland, despite it being significantly less likely that he will do so. Martin pops out, which shouldn’t really be a surprise to everybody because again, it’s glaringly obvious by both the numbers and the eye test that he’s really bad against left-handed pitching.

Now we’re at two outs in the inning with Ian Kinsler coming to the plate. He and the three hitters after him all hit right-handed, so Bo Porter makes the obvious call and brings in a right-handed reliever, whom Kinsler is less effective against, and Kinsler gets out.

That’s out number three. If Wash wasn’t so cavalier about giving outs away, there’s a good chance Elvis Andrus might have been able to hit with two men on that inning. I guess you can try to blame Martin and Kinsler for not driving Moreland in, but even Miguel Cabrera can only hit safely ~35% of the time.

Wash is constantly putting his players in less-than-optimal positions like that, and over the course of 162 games, it adds up. The biggest difference between the last two years and the two World Series years before that is that in 2010 and 2011 the Rangers were too good for Wash to screw up. That’s not the case this year, although the team still has enough talent that it could have overtaken Oakland for the AL West crown with more competent management.

Wow it sounds like Jon Daniels should have you managing.I guess tonight Wash made a bad move by putting two All Star in the starting line up and having them make 4 errors.In hindsight everybody is a genius.

I have been to almost all baseball stadiums in the US. Rangers fans aren’t as rowdy as many of the parks I have visited. There are a lot of families that attend Rangers games with their kids. If they had of built the park in downtown Dallas it would likely be different. That said the fans are there and they love their Rangers. Washington should focus on managing.

My first thought was STFU Washington. If the Trop saw 48,000 in two nights, I wouldn’t care what kind of mood they were in. I’d be just happy to see that many fans. (Trop capacity with the tarp on is only 34k with the obstructed view tarp covered seats; 42.7k with those seats uncovered.)

But you know, even though we’re a small crowd, we’re happy as all get out. Maybe Washington prefers that? An intimate, happy setting?

He has lead the team to back to back September collapses. Not all his fault certainly but he is the manager. The Rangers fans put 3 million butts in seats at the ballpark again this year. So to try and blame the fans is very ridiculous. Sorry we weren’t that excited to see you beat the Astros for the 17 time in 19 games. Unfortunately, even with that record against the Stros we are still on the outside looking in for the last wildcard spot.

A manager blaming fans when his job is already on the line seems like a stupid strategy. It usually just helps to ensure that he won’t return as manager. That’s my prediction for Ron Washington unless they are able to rally and make the post season including winning the wild card game.

He’s not blaming them for the losing…. He’s saying they are spoiled! People are pissy because the Rangers are a game out of the playoffs. Would you rather them be like the Marlins or Astros? Just be miles back of any playoff shot?

Also it isn’t all on him. The players haven’t exactly stepped up. I’m not saying he’s the best manager in the world but it’s also on the players. It’s also hard to keep putting people in place and win at a high rate when the team has lost as much talent as they have.

There’s no excuse for blaming your fans for not being excited enough. That’s the players/manager job. The fans pay your huge salaries, so go out there and earn it. If you can’t get us excited, that’s your fault…and if you keep insulting us, we won’t come back. I’m not going to pay for tickets, gas, parking, food, and beer to be insulted. I’ll stay at home and watch on TV, or I just won’t watch at all.

Spot on. The joy in Arlington will start when this Forrest Gump-a-Like is fired.

Let’s see, Ron, why there is no Joy in Mudville:

You pinch hit for a position player in the 2011 WS, and let Colby Lewis, the pitcher, hit during a rally.

You hit Mike Young, career singles hitter, CLEANUP in the 2011 WS, when Cruz and Napoli were hitting HR’s every game. NO protection for Hamilton, who hit .222, and Young flopped as well. You were lucky you weren’t fired on the way back to the dugout after handing the lineup card to the ump.

The list here could stretch for hours, but real Ranger fans who know the game realize you were just along for the ride with a very talented team. Given a team like the Astro’s, you would have been fired after 2-3 weeks. Jumping the fans who have listened to you butcher the English language and get busted for cocaine is a sure fire way to get the Josh Hamilton treatment.

Summing it up, you stink as a manager. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of town.

I live in the DFW area and I can attest to the fact that it is one of the most fair weather sports towns ever. Hamilton was right in saying that it isn’t a baseball town because it’s not. No one cared about this team till they started to do well and now that they aren’t going to the world series every year people are jumping ship. The only team people support no matter what is the Cowboys (Mavs are sort of like that but not anywhere near the Cowboys). As a huge hockey and baseball fan I can’t help but get annoyed at fair weather fans enough though I know they happen with all teams and all sports.

I am not a Rangers fan. (Houston area). But that’s crazy. The fact that 43,000 people at the game does not indicate fan support? What does he want? Official game-day holidays? That has to stack up pretty well for attendance against anyone in the league. Including playoff teams.

I’d say the Rangers’ fans are doing okay for support. Now, can the team win?

Macondo Banana Massacre Field has ten thousand fewer seats and can’t keep the dust of of most of them. Then again, the Feesh exist in a perpetual state of collapse – they don’t have to wait for September to let the air out of their swim bladders. They’re cloacas-up out of the spillway.

I mean it may be financial support but is it really support for the team if it’s dead silent barely even watching and everyone hates on and boos the team? I’m not saying all fans boo I just think it comes down to spoiled fans who is you aren’t first place from beginning to end you suck.

stex52 - Sep 26, 2013 at 1:11 PM

You are putting me in the awkward position of defending D-FW people.

They are there. I find it hard to believe that they weren’t cheering when good things were happening. It was the Astros in town (kind of like, if you don’t win it’s a disaster). And people do have to be apprehensive about whether the Rangers have blown it. And, with a few rare exceptions, I have never found Texas baseball crowds to be very rowdy lots.

I actually like Ron. But he just bought some trouble he didn’t need with that comment.

So what you are saying, is that people don’t want to waste $50-100 to go see a lousy stinking team?

That fans should buy anything put under their nose?

People support winners. The Rangers put a very inferior product on the field for 35 years, and it reflected in their attendance. Now when they perform, people will come. But they are reverting to form with a manager that is now blaming the fans for their ineptitude, and the result will be Washington applying at Burger King this winter.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Again, it wasn’t that long ago that I would go down for games and I’d see more Red Sox t-shirts in the crowd than Ranger ones — and they would boo their own players. Last year, I was down at a game and they were inducting guys into their hall of fame. I think the majority of them are players from the last 10-15 years. They like being #1 at things and aren’t much interested if they aren’t. Astros fans are much better, but that’s probably because they are fewer and hardcore.

Ron, as a baseball fan, I thank you for one of the most memorable WS in history. But you gotta understand that saying ‘Once Burned, Twice Shy’. Hell, I’m not even a Rangers fan, and I expected more from the Rangers these last few years. Here’s some advice, Ron: Let your PR and Marketing departments do their jobs, and you do yours!

I don’t think Ron’s referring to butts-in-seats, there have been plenty of those the last several years, mine included. What he’s feeling is our absolute disgust with this crappy 2013 offense and the ongoing lousy tactical decisions he makes year in, year out. The bunting, the head-scratching bullpen decisions, the bunting, David Murphy constantly in the lineup, the bunting, etc.

Many were booing after that last sweep by Oakland and even in this Houston series, you could just feel the resignation when the Astros would take the lead. Luckily, well, Astros. Don’t think we’ll be so lucky against the Halos.

Best course of action for Ron would be to borrow that Men in Black memory-wipe thingy and reset our expectations back to 2009 levels because right now, we are spoiled.

Yes he did, he added Rios. Back in April, Tepesch and Grimm were filling in nicely and got some good big league experience (i.e. he was utilizing that great farm). If I’m gonna knock JD on anything, it’s signing Lance Berkman, who had maybe one good month but otherwise has been a waste of 14 Mil.

When he needed to go get starting pitching, he leveraged the farm system to get Garza. Garza hasn’t been very good, but he seemed like the right move at the time.

There are certainly reasons to allocate blame to JD, but not leveraging the farm system to address needs is not one of them.

We’ll agree to disagree. The Rangers’ window will close eventually and they still haven’t won it all, despite having teams capable of it. If Tampa could have added James Shields last winter, the Rangers could have as well. Or maybe they could have traded for Stanton. They didn’t want to trade Profar, which is fine. But then they bring the kid up, he plays very little and has depressed his trade value with a mediocre performance. Now, the best trade commodity is Andrus.

I love the Texas Rangers and I love Ron Washington. It is a somewhat deflating and disappointing as a devoted fan to see them go down this road again, especially after a great August which came after an awful July. We’re nervous! It’s hard to get all rowdy and excited right now when the playoffs are on the line. I thoroughly enjoy watching the Rangers play baseball and I am not ready for their season to end!
But I also think, as silly as it may sound, the DFW Fans are just not a rowdy bunch. Hard to believe, I know, but I go to all of the Cowboy home games and this past Sunday it was packed at Jerry World, but there were several times you could here a pin drop in there.

Well, Wash, you pretty much have done it to yourself, eh? I mean you’re not exactly joyful in the dugout? You don’t make the greatest moves, either. And you are in charge of a team that may well not make the playoffs this year, in the second straight year of a September meltdown. And one of your key players got caught in the PED business (granted, he gets credit fro owning up top it and apologizing).

Granted, your GM did some boneheaded things this year like not giving you good enough players to make the playoffs and picking what amounts to
a political fight with Nolan Ryan. And granted, the GM failed in his capacity in the past month to step in while the September slide was going on, which is what successful GMs, with on field experience, would do and have done.

You might think well about at least offering a resignation. I’m not saying it’s all your fault – I lay blame mostly with your GM – but you are the leader and right now, the leader of a team that ain’t makin’ it…

Last year in the Wild Card playoff, I was almost thrown out of the ballpark because I wouldn’t sit down, and some people 6 rows behind me didn’t want to stand up. In a PLAYOFF GAME! An elimination game no less.